Hi I doubt anyone is going to see this but also as a developer this is quite exciting. Some MacOS apps have an app store compliant version, and a more supercharged version that, for instance, accesses private APIs. Now this will also be an option on IOS. For instance, making a music app and want to know what the app user is currently listening to? Well you can do
let bundle = CFBundleCreate(kCFAllocatorDefault, NSURL(fileURLWithPath: "/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MediaRemote.framework")) guard let MRMediaRemoteGetNowPlayingInfoPointer = CFBundleGetFunctionPointerForName(bundle, "MRMediaRemoteGetNowPlayingInfo" as CFString) else { return } typealias MRMediaRemoteGetNowPlayingInfoFunction = @convention(c) (DispatchQueue, @escaping ([String: Any]) -> Void) -> Void let MRMediaRemoteGetNowPlayingInfo = unsafeBitCast(MRMediaRemoteGetNowPlayingInfoPointer, to: MRMediaRemoteGetNowPlayingInfoFunction.self) MRMediaRemoteGetNowPlayingInfo(DispatchQueue.main, { (information) in let bundleInfo = Dynamic._MRNowPlayingClientProtobuf.initWithData(information["kMRMediaRemoteNowPlayingInfoClientPropertiesData"]) print("song: \(information["kMRMediaRemoteNowPlayingInfoTitle"] as! String), author: \(information["kMRMediaRemoteNowPlayingInfoArtist"] as! String), app: \(bundleInfo.displayName.asString!)") })but the second this code lands in your app it sure as hell won’t be getting accepted to the app store. This is just one example, there’s a world of opportunity here. It’s not just for installing emulators & modded apps. It’s a tool that will enable developers to do more with their apps, as they can freely do all sorts of things apple would not tolerate on the app store
I’m wondering how this might work with child accounts. Would we be able to set permissions to disable alternative App Store access? While the App Store isn’t perfect, I trust it far more than whatever third-party marketplaces might develop.
I’d imagine it would be like it is on Android- you have a setting that’s off by default, and it needs turned on before you can sideload. It would more likely be under the parental controls of the device than the account settings.
Of course they will. And I highly doubt they’ll win.
This is one last Hail Mary pass for them to avoid having to open up their walled garden.
Just a reminder to everybody supporting government overreach, while you’re enjoying your third party apps the EU is making moves to destroy your privacy:
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/17rg58f/eu_article_45_requires_that_browsers_trust/
apple fanboys trying their hardest to defend the anti-consumer interests of a huge company is sth I’ll never be able to understand.
“Please daddy apple limit my ability do what I want with the device I bought and legally own” 😂
you guys are so fucked and nobody is going to feel bad. this dude literally included a link showing the EU trying to force browsers to trust government issued certs, and you’re talking about “apple fanboys”. when your entire phone can be read by the government with zero warrant I don’t wanna hear one fucking complaint from you, just sit down and be quiet and have no privacy.
Ofc I know the shit the eu has been cooking up related to e2e and am against it.
That doesn’t mean I don’t support the EU having that kind of power, as you can see, a lot of good can come from it.
It’s the same with every government. “government can do bad thing, therefore it shouldn’t be able to do anything”
Smartest post I’ve seen all day. A lot of the changes Apple have been forced to make are ones many of us wanted anyway, I really wanted USB-C so I was happy, but this isn’t the right way about it. “You must use this kind of cable by law”, what if somebody comes up with something better now? Imagine what today’s phones would look like if they made such a ruling back when USB-A was the standard.
Not to mention none of these people are elected, not even by the people in EU countries, so it just seems extra weird that they can make such seemingly arbitrary decisions that have a profound effect worldwide.
Yes, USB-C is good, and I’m sure many people will be happy about 3rd party app stores, but like you say, what next? We can’t always guarantee it’ll be something good or right.
The part you are wrong about is where you think people are smart enough to understand this. They are not. Full stop. They just aren’t. They’re shortsighted, emotional, and naive. They will only cry about how it’s bullshit that their phone scans their photos, when it becomes reality. Right now they think they can have some centralized authority that controls what features must be in a phone, but somehow prevent that authority from using that power against them. That is stupid. They cannot answer the question “how are you going to feel when the EU mandates an unpopular change?” – that you asked of them. They can’t answer it because they simply think it won’t happen.
Most people do not understand, or refuse to accept, the reality that there are tradeoffs to every decision. Yes it is annoying that Apple won’t open their walled garden. Yes it is obnoxious that I need to pay $100 a fucking year just to write an app to use on my own goddamn phone. That pisses me off. But if the alternative is letting the government MANDATE that I am allowed to install that app, I’ll pass. Because I know the next mandate will be an app I very much do not want.
I look forward to when we have no legal encryption anymore. People will blame left wingers, right wingers, capitalists, communists, anyone but themselves.
Hope USB-C and sideloading is worth it.
Didn’t they say this will only alllow sideloading on EU phones?
How about they don’t. Just accept you’ve lost Apple, don’t be a child about it
Have the phone boot into a “custom apps mode” where the only app you have is basic sms texting and phone (basically the minimum to call it a smartphone). Only allow custom apps to run in this mode.
People still have the ‘freedom to do whatever they want with their own hardware’, but they don’t get to demand that Apple supports that freedom with the full iOS software.
This would be an excellent solution to the EU overreach.
Did you say the same shit when Airdrop got changed because of China ?
Of course, they’ll procrastinate for as long as possible. But in the end, there’s no way they’ll win this one
I think you meant “delay”. They are doing the opposite of procrastinating as they are already taking action.
They’re just delaying the inevitable. They know that once they’re forced to allow side loading in the EU it’s only a matter of time before all other major markets follow. They will now be forced to actually compete by cutting the Apple tax rate, the horror!
How is this going to reduce the apple tax?
Apple provides services for that Apple tax. A new competitor with no ability to create APIs and new tools is not going to compete on quality.
I don’t see what changes this will make. I can see the case for game app stores but regular apps? If apps sell more on the Apple App Store devs will gladly pay some Apple tax.
What apps will we get that are not available now? You need to convince the developers to move platforms, not just the users. So what is the benefit of using a different store?
It’s funny how people assume that alternative app stores would mean they can get around paying their cut.
As was established in Epic v. Apple, it’s not a payment processing fee, it’s an IP fee:
Indeed, as the Court has found, Apple is entitled to license its intellectual property for a fee, and to guard its intellectual property from uncompensated use by others.
This applies to sideloaded apps, alternative app stores, external payment processing, etc. The fee is to be payed for using the platform, its tools, and technologies, and having access to the user base generated by Apple via their hardware. That’s what you’re paying a 30% cut for.
There is no way they can collect such a cut under the new rules.
They might have to - while the DMA requires them to allow sideloading or alternative stores, the DSA requires them (and alternative stores) to govern the system and protect users as well as remove illegal and violating content (and the EUs level of free speech varies between member countries).
And even under the DMA ‘the gatekeeper shall not be prevented from taking … strictly necessary and proportionate measures to ensure that third-party [apps and app stores] do not endanger the integrity of the [gatekeeper’s] hardware or operating system, provided such measures are duly justified by the gatekeeper’.
People seem to be grossly under-informed (or unfazed) about either regulation and also blissfully unaware of the muzzling of free speech and the amount of censorship provisions contained in the DSA.
It’s as if the EUs regulatory left hand does’t know what its right hand is doing. The EU has an almost naive belief in the ‘magical’ abilities of software companies to make opposing legal requirements work so they can have their cake and eat it too.
If sideloading is allowed, how would they enforce that?
Sideloading does not mean that you’re not subject to a ToS or that you will get full access to system frameworks.
This would potentially still require you to have an Apple developer membership to properly codesign binaries (like on macOS) if you distribute binaries and thus Apple could ask for financial audits to determine your income made with iOS customers.
This was explicitly mentioned in the court ruling: If a payment provider outside of Apple is used, Apple is entitled to such an audit to determine the size of the fee.
That’s not an enforceable policy though. If you allow any form of sideloading, people will get around that quickly. Jailbreaking is already possible, sideloading will make it easy.
oh ffs. Will Apple ever compete fairly?